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Those were the days

The last time I saw the dozen or so people I’m about to meet in six hours, Ronald Reagan had just sworn in as President of the United States of America, and a rockabilly fever swept over Finland. No cause and effect, at least I don’t think so, but simply a coincidence.

Finland had two TV channels, and I was hooked on Love Boat, mostly because the cruise director Julie was such a sweet and cute chiquitita. Urho Kekkonen was in his 25rd year as the president of Finland, and we accidentally pushed our biology teacher into the river Vantaa that flows sort of through Helsinki.

None of those things have anything to do with each other, either.

The Blues Brothers had been a huge hit, and one of the posters had been on the bus stop just outside our house. I thought Mork from Ork was way cooler. And somehow I got bitten by the Woody Allen bug, so one weekend, I saw both Manhattan and Bananas. First Bananas which a buddy of mine and I thought was so funny we wanted more so we saw Manhattan, which we didn’t think was funny at all.

And at school, we drove a substitute teacher into therapy.

My newest favorite hockey player was Vladimir Krutov whom I had seen play at the World Juniors, but as a sports idol, he wasn’t as cool as Kevin Keegan or Atik Ismail. I had just bought my first record, an Elvis record – “The Rocking Days” – and our music teacher, a national celebrity and a TV personality, made everybody buy block flutes while promising that whoever would learn to play this song, would get a 10, the highest grade.
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I only learned the one below, and got an 8. I can still play it. I wonder if the others can, too.